News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-12-08
A WOMAN'S STORY.
Nina Van Zandt Tells Why She
Married Spies by Proxy.
From the Cincinnati Gazette. !

Nina Van Zandt was interviewed
While the reporter was talking with
her an old man came in with a petition
IN his hand. She took it eagerly and
scanned it quickly, and then stood up
beside the old man and turned sideways.
''Won't you sign the petition p said the
old man, entirely ignorant as to whom
he was speaking. ST sign it, said she.
sit would do you no good; it would do
you great harm; my name is Spies"
The old man started, but said nothing
"How are you getting on2" she asked.
Do you get many signers, and what do
| they say z" And then she moved away.
her head. AS he went out of the door
she said: "Just think, he is over sixty
years old and is going about with that
/ petition"
| Continuing she said: ST wonder if
those opposed to it think they will stop
this movement of the working peoples
Of course we feel that for the move
ment itself the death of those seven
condemned men would accomplishment
Would not their blood be always fresh
ening it up like the rain upon grass"
and she put out her hand and with a
pretty motion waved it upward. "'A
conspiracy Yes, that is what they
call it; it is only on a conspiracy charge
that they could convict any one of MUIR
der, yet at the meeting four proved an
alibi for the Haymarket meeting; and
then there were some in the conspiracy
who, 1t was proved, had never known
each other; they have only become ac-
quainted since they have been in jail
together. Oh, the childishness of the
whole thing makes one sick at heart.
The terror that was inspired in the peo-
pie right after the Haymarket meeting
was dreadful, and that feeling has been
fed and nursed and kept brightly burn
ing ever since. For months after the
meeting policemen found bombs under
the sidewalks. Now, as the directions
for making bombs had been published
broadcast, in all sorts of publications,
is it not possible that those interested
in having the bombs found there could |
also have put them there. Then it was
so very strange that the police used to
find bombs under the railroad tracks, |
and Just about three minutes before |
trains came along, and on tracks where
the trains had been running all the time
and where it was impossible for any one
to place them there in the intervals
without those who did find them seeing
those who had placed them on the track. |
'tBut that was not the most singular |
performance at all. Judge Gary's court |
was closed for the summer, and the chill
dren of the janitor were accustomed to
play there. They had left one of the
tin balls to hol Irvine, such as you see
in every grocery store. When the court
room was opened the tin twineholder |
was found, and it was said that bomb .
had been placed in Judge Gary's court. |
The reporters visited the room, there |
appeared in the morning papers two
columns of description of this bomb, /
with headlines so large" and she point /
ed to the largest type in the newspaper
she he'd in her hand. ''In the evening
papers there were six lines saying that
it was mistake about bomb being
found in Judge Gary's court, but how
many of those who had read the two
columns with their big headlines ever
saw the modest six lines of contradic-
ton? The reporters go to the jail and
ask the jailor Has Nina been here to-
day?' Not Mrs. Spies; not Miss Van
Zandt, but just Nina We had never
thought about marrying until we knew
what the fate of my husband would be;
but a new Sheriff went in and it was
given out that only blood relatives would
be admitted to see the condemned an
archists; that none merely friends could
see them. And for more than week it
was so, and then, and only then, did we
think of marriage which alone would
give me the right to visit him. His
mother and L do not stay long, hardly
more than fifteen minutes, because that
hour is the only time he has for exer-
else, and we feel he must have some
chance to stretch his arms, for the cell
is so small he cannot put them out to
their full length"